Nicolas Bernoulli as a statistician
Nicolas Bernoulli as a statistician

Summary/Abstract: Nicolas Bernoulli belonged to the glorious Bernoulli dynasty, he was a nephew of both Jakob and Johann Bernoulli and a student of the latter. De Moivre [1733/1756, p. 243], called him a great mathematician, but he was unable to devote enough time to mathematics and did not live up to his capability [Hald 1990, p. 393]. In statistics, he is mostly remembered for his dissertation on the application of the art of conjecturing to jurisprudence (1709/1975). Its English translation www.cs.xu.edu/math/sources/NBernoulli/de_usu_ artis.pdf is horrible (and translations in other languages are lacking). Latin constructions are rendered slavishly, without any consideration of English grammar. Many phrases are very long, up to 25 lines (in one case, 40 lines long) and in some cases the translation is either incomprehensible or certainly wrong but Kohli [1975], provided a useful commentary.

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